You Don't Care!
by thewriterstory
Summary: After the sky orca fiasco, Private felt different - unusually angry and hurt because of his own team. He had been silently suffering, his teammates totally ignorant. He could only hold in so much though, and soon after the dams collapse and flood. Private!whump. Brotherly Fluff!


**You don't care!**

After the sky orca fiasco, Private felt different - unusually angry and hurt because of his own team. He had been silently suffering, his teammates totally ignorant. He could only hold in so much though, and soon after the dams collapse and flood. Private!whump. Attempted brotherly fluff.

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 **Disclaimer: I do not own this. Need to have watched the Skorca episode to understand.**

"Alright men, execute barrel roll in 3-2-1!" Skipper commanded his quartet to perform their perfect routine.

The four planes rolled in the sky, a little higher than the average trees, with the captain in the lead and his private on his south, the lieutenant and sergeant on his south-west and south-east, respectively.

It had been a good day to practice their aerial routines, they were free from their entertainment duties at their zoo and Skipper didn't want the perfect opportunity for a combat exercise to slip.

Rico stuck his tongue out, enjoying the barrel to his fullest. Kowalski looked a little sick, as usual, his commanding officer noted.

Private looked exceptionally serious and his expression was grim. His flippers were coiled around the steering handles tightly. From his own rear view mirrors, Skipper could see the tension in Private's muscles.

"Alright men, training's over, bring it down for landing," Skipper instructed, several seconds later.

"Aww!" Rico grumbled, but after hearing Skipper's warning growl, he relented and followed his team down the sewer tunnels to park their airplane.

"Skipper, can I bring Rico to refill my lab equipment?"

"What kind of equipment?" Skipper paused from his own duties and turned to Kowalski who was at his lab's door.

Skipper was cleaning the shelf under and behind their television, while Private was cleaning one of their exit hatches (marked with the fish statue), Kowalski their lab and Rico a secret room.

"Some chemicals, some safety gears," Kowalski looked around the room and then met Skipper's frown, "maguffium too." He added in a mumble.

At Skipper's glare, he justified more, "I won't do anything bad, just run downtown to our usual place and straight back home."

Skipper nodded, "Fine, you're free to go, be back by 8 pm." At that, Kowalski rejoiced and scooted off, fetching Rico on the way out.

From somewhere within earshot, he thought he heard a sigh and a grumble. 'Private?' Skipper thought, since he was the only other penguin in the room.

Meanwhile Private internally groaned that he had to be alone with Skipper, among all types of company.

The HQ was uncomfortably quiet for many minutes since the tall twos' departure. Skipper took a look at his youngest comrade now and then. Private seemed to be doing his chores slowly and tiredly - as if he was sick of it already.

Minutes of internal debate later, Skipper realized he couldn't bear more of his unusual behaviour.

"Private are you feeling well?" Skipper asked, letting some concern seem into his voice.

"Mmhmm," Private replied, not even opening his beak.

Skipper raised an eyebrow.

"Is something wrong?"

Private shook his head, knowing that Skipper was staring at him and could see his response.

The leader penguin dropped his rag near the bunks and walked over to the cute one. Private hadn't sensed him yet.

Skipper raised a flipper to Private's forehead and attempted to feel his temperature when his subordinate-

"Don't touch me!"

-interrupted.

Private flailed, swatting Skipper's flipper away.

"Stop that Private, you don't seem that good."

"I'm fine, thank you!" Private gritted out, smoothing out his ruffled feathers.

Skipper was confused, his young compadre never acted this way. "Did someone hurt you?"

"No."

"Private, look at me." Skipper ordered.

"Don't pretend like you care!"

That could have been equivalent to slapping Skipper.

"Where do you get that nonsense from?" He snarled, quickly losing his patience.

"You didn't realize?"

"Realize what? That something's wrong with you?"

"Gosh, you are really that neglectful aren't you?" Private mumbled under his breath, but Skipper heard each word of it.

"What did I do?"

"Three days ago!"

"The skorca?"

"Yes the recon."

"That was three days ago, what about it? You disobeyed my instructions and you went hyperactive after eating a box of peanut butter winkies."

Turning away from Skipper, Private closed the 'Fish Statue' door and tried to ignore what he said. His heart stung at his leader's words and he tried to control his emotions.

"That's all you remember?" He questioned the elder.

"You did save the city from the skorca, with our help…" Skipper recalled. What was bugging his cadet?

"Nothing more?" Private prompted, anger bubbling within him.

The silence irritated him more.

"Don't you see!? Are you that short-sighted?"

"Spit it out yourself, what's bothering you Private?!"

"You don't remember I infiltrated the skorca's bubble defense for you guys? How about me being attacked by the sky orca! Oh, how about _I_ nearly _died_?"

Skipper's thoughts went back to the actual incident as he started remembering every detail. He knew what his cadet was referring to. The horrifying moments, when the whole zoo thought him dead!

"Are you scared, Private?"

 _More like sca_ _ **rr**_ _ed._ "No Skipper, I'm happy, I just survived a huge killer whale."

"Private why didn't you tell me?"

"So I am supposed to tell every single detail to you now. Are you not my captain? Why do your inferencing skills only work during missions!"

"Private, I don't know what exactly your issue is-"

"You have the issue." Private glared at his skipper. He usually was respectful but his captain was annoying him greatly right now.

"You didn't believe me Skipper. You, Kowalski, Rico. But Skipper, I thought you knew each of us very well, including me. I thought you were my guardian, and you'll always be there for me when my biological family cannot be."

"What are you talking about?" _Private's just ranting nonsense now._

"Skipper you abandoned me when I told you there was a huge orca in the middle of New York! Do you understand where I'm getting at? You left me. To. DIE." Private pointed at him accusingly, his rage uncontrollable now.

"Private!" A loud slap was awarded.

Private didnt back down - he recoiled - but instead of quietening he became more hysterical.

"Skipper you're selfish! You don't actually care for us, you only care about yourself and your own missions. You don't even trust me, you think you are so high and mighty Skipper-"

"Private, the evidence was there, your intel seemed to be made up. The evidence was misleading-"

"Don't blame it on the evidence!" Private's eyes were shiny now, filling with unshed tears.

"It was right there and-"

"Skipper if you had emotions!" The young one started tearing, "if you _have_ emotions, you would have been able to know what the truth was." His voice shook and tears streamed down his face.

"You nearly lost a teammate, would you have cared then?" He questioned, almost in a whisper. "No, you simply went on your life, your routines and you ignored what happened to me."

"Private, it's not my fault, you know I didn't think there was such a bad threat in the city.."

"What happened to expecting the unexpected?" The broken argued, continuing, "You're heartless!" He couldn't speak after that, his whole body refused to comply and he broke into sobs. He nearly crumpled, if not for Skipper catching him in time.

Skipper struggled, unsure of how to proceed. He slowly led Private's trembling form out and to the bunks.

Private curled up on himself, shuffling away from Skipper, adding on to the latter's guilt.

Private's sobs subsided, almost inaudible, and Skipper just sat down near him with a cup of water beside.

"I'm sorry Private..." Skipper forced out, rubbing Private's back attempting to comfort him, rather awkwardly.

Private only shielded his face with his flipper, trying hard to stop crying.

Skipper realized he had royally messed up.

(Private felt his dignity had all been thrown into trash and couldn't let his leader see a disgraceful weakling's face.)

The awkward penguin estimated it was going to take a lot of time to sort out his teammate.

He had to fix this fast. Before his two other comrades return home.

"Private..." The skipper paused, and for the record, he didn't expect a reply anyway,

"No matter what we do, our team is still imperfect. Sometimes we can't afford to look after everyone else all the time. As captain I understand and I know now that we hurt you, so I apologize Private."

Private tilted his head, he peeked at Skipper but his face was still shielded. Skipper took that as a cue to continue.

"Private, sometimes, we, the three of us, might neglect you because you aren't experienced as us."

Private's eyes widened. _After all these years he still thinks of me so lowly..._

"You are skilled yes, elite indeed," he smirked a little, Private growing confused. Though he was calming down, Private continued to sniffle.

"We are penguins, nature's lawbreakers. The three of us, we've been through a lot more than you."

"But you haven't been in that many near-death experiences. You'll learn eventually, the extents of serving your fellow animals and following your team into intense battles."

Skipper, slightly carried away, bent and laid a hand on his junior's shoulder.

"Don't forget Private, you still have us, your teammates. I promise you, from now on we won't put you down or ignore you, alright? We'll help you, you don't need to be scared," Skipper smiled warmly (now confident of his own comforting skills).

"Thank you Skipper," Private said softly. He wasn't completely reassured after a mission he was declared KIA during, but he was in a clearer state of mind to know that Skipper realized his reason for anger.

"Private, now do you realize why you shouldn't overdose on sugar?"

"Sorry." Private had almost forgotten. Peanut Butter Winkies are almost irresistable.

"Don't do it again."

"Yes sir." He hung his head remorsefully.

The elder, challenged himself to take a risk and stepped forward, engulfing the youthful penguin in an embrace.

 _Whoa! Skipper, this is unexpected... wait, you_ do _give hugs!_

Afterwards, Private spoke up, Skipper erasing any and all memory that he had initiated the hug.

"Skipper?"

"Yes?"

"In spite of my failed recon you came after me when I separated from the team and you found out about the orca, so i guess... thank you for not remaining angry at me."

"Don't be silly Private, you should not be thanking me, you were the real hero of the day, saving the city from the skorca."

Still young and yet he's saving the city single-handedly.. My private is growing up to become a real hero.

Skipper noted suddenly and proudly. His heart stung a bit even then; not because he himself wasn't the hero, it was more due to the fact that he had caused his cadet emotional suffering for the past few days and remained completely oblivious.

He personally vowed to make more effort not to hurt Private and to mentor him to the best of his ability so that Private would reach his true potential in the near future.

 _-The End-_

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 **I attempted to make this fluffy. Had this plot bunny since 18 FEBRAURY 2015 but only last week I figured how to write it into a story.**

 **Please review/feedback, I'm not sure if it had the whump/fluff I wanted or it came out in a mess :P**

 _ **-thewriterstory  
24th July 2015**_


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